The last few years have been times of challenge for Morpeth but, despite the floods, there has been a recovery in the town's fortunes.

There is a real risk that the renaissance of Morpeth would rapidly come to a halt if permission were granted to build two supermarkets away from the town centre.

Of course there is a need for people to do their supermarket shop and people in Morpeth should not be denied access to good value, but out of town supermarkets would carry a high price for the town centre.

There are also practical problems with the plans: how many additional articulated lorries would ply the roads from the A1 each day to deliver? How would traffic at the junction next to the station worsen?

How would the prospective tenants of the new Mall feel about the prospect of two out of town supermarkets?

The decision about whether to put supermarkets out of town is one which will have irreversible consequences for Morpeth.

This isn't an experiment to see how it might go and then we can change our minds in the future — once the shops, skills and crafts are lost they will not come back.

There are too many market towns in Britain where crafts and trades have succumbed to the advance of out of town generic shopping.

If we don't make a stand here and prevent the plans for out of town supermarkets going ahead then we are opening our arms to a Morpeth which will increasingly look like every other town, boasting uniformity above choice and craft.

Morpeth's strength lies in its diversity and wide appeal. Its traders and their customers deserve a level playing field and out of town supermarkets would not provide this.

We would urge everyone who feels strongly that Morpeth's strengths should not be sacrificed to object to proposals for out of town supermarkets.

CAMPBELL STOREY
Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for Wansbeck